Latest Features

Legendary guitarist Joe Walsh has announced a June 5 release date for his new solo album, Analog Man. The title track of the album is also available for streaming now, and you can listen below, or over at Joe's official website.

So everyone in 2012 is an expert. Recently, I was speaking on a panel concerning music business trends in 2012 (Easy: Record industry is slowly shutting down, the music business is fine). Then the subject turned to the issue I thought we've covered ad nauseam: “Poor man’s" anything.

A few weeks prior to the start of the Mass Chaos Tour, co-headlined by Staind and Godsmack, Staind guitarist Mike Mushok phoned in to discuss the making of the band’s new, self-titled album. Staind is the seventh release from Mushok, vocalist Aaron Lewis and bassist Johnny April, who are now joined by their new drummer, Sal Giancarelli.

Here's a video of Dream Theater guitarist John Petrucci playing and discussing Ernie Ball's new Cobalt guitar strings. Ernie Ball recently announced the new line of electric bass and guitar strings, which is made out of cobalt, the most magnetically active material. Ernie Ball's patent pending advancement in technology stems from a nine-year pursuit in researching materials that give guitarists and bassists a new-and-improved voice.

Here's an exclusive "Betcha Can't Play This" video featuring guitarist Paolo Pieri of Italian death metal band Hour of Penance. Pieri is playing a Carella Black Horseman custom guitar through a 15-watt Fender amp.

Throughout a career that has now spanned 12 years, French atmospheric metal band Alcest have been known to experiment with their musical style on each of their three studio albums and various other EPs and split releases.

Singer Emily Armstrong, bassist Chris Null, drummer Sean Friday and guitarist Siouxsie Medley -- better known as Dead Sara -- combine a high-energy live show with well-crafted, organic rock and roll music. The band, which released a six-song EP, The Airport Sessions, in 2008, is now set to release their self-titled debut album on April 10 on Pocket Kid Records through Fontana/Universal.

As 2012 chugs forward, so does the anticipated and still-TBA summer release date of Crooked Deluxe, the new free-style electro-rock album from London-based Capelle. The album has been brewing hype among the band's UK fan base, just as the band has been initiating hype of their own in the US.